Hawaiian Airlines tops in on-time arrivals among US-based carrriers; Comair comes last

Hawaiian Airlines, based in Hawaii, the United States, and having its main hub at Honolulu International Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, has ranked No. 1 in on-time arrivals among the United States-based airlines.

The arrival rate of Hawaiian Airlines was 95.1% in September 2008, according to the monthly report titled monthly Air Travel Consumer Report prepared by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT).

The report details the operational performance of the 19 largest airlines based in the United States, including the 11 recognised major airlines.

Frontier Airlines, the low-cost airline based at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, the United States, posted its best-ever performance for on-time arrivals in September 2008.

Frontier also ranked second in the Air Travel Consumer Report.

Frontier Airlines is a major United States-based, low-cost airline with two-thirds of its domestic destinations west of the Mississippi River. The carrier maintains its sole hub at Denver International Airport, and provides regional service to the surrounding Rocky Mountain States through a codeshare agreement with Great Lakes Airlines.

Pinnacle Airlines, the regional airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, the United States, got the third place in the report.

Comair, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, ranked last among the US-based carriers regarding on-time arrivals in September 2008.

Comair is based in Erlanger, a city near the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, the United States. Operating under the brand name Delta Connection, Comair operates passenger services to a large number of destinations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas.

While Frontier Airlines reported 91.5% of its flights arriving on-time in September 2008 at the US Department of Transportation’s 32 largest airports, Comair reached its destinations on schedule 77.5% of the time, putting it at the 19th place, at the bottom of the list.

Comair reported the highest number of flights late, at least 70% of the time, with its flight from Cleveland to Atlanta late 83% of the time.

Comair also came last vis-à-vis baggage-handling performance, with 9.37 reports of mishandled baggage per 1,000 passengers in September 2008, compared with 7.3 a year before.

Delta Air Lines, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, was placed at No. 9, with 84.4% of flights arriving on-time. That compares with 77.1% in August 2008, and 69.6% in July 2008.

Atlantic Southeast Airlines, the connection carrier of Delta Air Lines, was ranked No. 11, with 83.2% of flights arriving on-time.

As for baggage-handling performance, Atlantic Southeast Airlines was ranked last.

According to the monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, Delta Air Lines ranked 13th among the 19 carriers regarding mishandled baggage – with 4.5 reports for every 1,000 passengers, compared with 6.8 in September 2007.

However, Delta Air Lines improved its complaint rate, ranking 15th, with 1.5 complaints per 100,000 enplanements – down from 2.1 in September 2007.

Comair also improved its complaint rate – with 1.6 complaints per 100,000 enplanements, coming at the 17th place, compared to 1.8 complaints per 100,000 enplanements a year ago.